A browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting and traversing information resources on a network (“network resources”). Typically, the network is the Internet and the network resources are Internet resources on the World Wide Web, but this is not always the case. Browsers, can, for example, be used to access network resources on a local network, e.g. an intranet site, irrespective of whether that local network is connected to the Internet.
A network resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Locator (URL). The network resource may be, for example, a web page, an image, a video, an audio file, a text document or any number of other pieces of content. Hyperlinks present in resources enable users to easily navigate their browsers to related resources.
FIG. 1 shows a screen shot of a prior art Microsoft™ Internet Explorer™ browser 10, which illustrates some common conventional elements of a browser window: the title bar 12, the address bar 14, the search bar 16, the menu bar 18, the links bar 20, a tool bar 22, a tab 24, the display window 26, a pop-up window 28, the vertical scroll bar 30, and the status bar 32. The foregoing examples are merely exemplary and are not intended to be limited with respect to the definition of a browser. Conventional browsers may have more, less and/or different elements than the foregoing.
Browsers have been in existence for a relatively short period of time (approximately 20 years before the filing date of the present application), and thus, while they are generally adequate for their intended purpose, given their relative youth, improvements are nonetheless possible.